In subsequent years I rode the range as a "puncher" and drove twenty mule teams with one line and a blacksnake whip. I remained an abstainer and occasionally found others that did likewise ; but I learned to tolerate and really sometimes enjoy the witticisms and foolishness of those who did indulge. The fact of being sober did not reduce one in the opinion of his associates, although they in their cups and in carousals frequently "smoked up" the little cities of the plains.

I spent the winter of 1885-86 on the ranch of Hall & Evans northeast of North Platte; and one of the pleasant acquaintances of my life has been with John Evans, recently gone over the Great Divide. Father and Mother Hall have also gone to their rewards, they being devout Methodists.

In the spring of 1886 the constant string of emigrants and emigrant wagons going west along the valley of the North Platte river gave one an impression that soon the entire west would be filled with people. I grew impatient to be on my way, and in May I came to Sidney and in June went on to Cheyenne.

I shall always remember the time when we

topped the crest of the divide east of Cheyenne and I saw far away to the southwest the snowy caps of the Rocky Mountains.

During the summer I "skinned mules" on the Cheyenne & Northern, now a part of the Hill system of railroads that connects Denver with the Big Horn Basin and the Puget Sound. Here I found many homeseekers like myself who had taken claims and were out looking for a grub stake for the winter. Several were from the Box Butte Table, among whom were old time friends from Illinois, John Frazier and Henry Watson.